Sunday 5th March will be a day long-remembered by those who entered the 2017 Hardriders event as it dawned with the forecast rain coming down in bucketfulls to soak the course and provide a lot of standing water.
A few of the 69 entrees plumped for the easier option of a lie-in but the true Hardriders turned up to test themselves on the 23 mile Time Trial from Wroxton to Ettington and back with the slope and bends of Sunrising Hill being negotiated on each leg.
Dan Bigham broke the course record in 2016 with a time of 51m42s and this looked to be comfortably safe given the rain and strong crosswinds which caused one or two nervous moments for those riders on disk or deep-rimmed wheels.
Later riders benefited from the rain stopping and drier roads care of the strengthening breeze and faster times were being recorded as each rider crossed the finish line.
After some careful checking to avoid an Oscar-esque error, the results were announced:
Veterans (40+)
3rd Roger Foster (Team MK) 1h3m29s
2nd Richard Howes (Coventry Road Club) 1h3m01s
1st Tim Butt (Banbury Star CC) 59m20s
Female
3rd Alison Bagnall (Stratford Cycling Club) 1h7m51s
2nd Deborah Davidson (Mickey Cranks Cycling Club) 1h7m20s
1st Lydia Watts (Zappi Racing Team) 1h5m31s
Male
3rd Cameron Foster (Team MK) 55m34s
2nd Chris Goodfellow (DRAG2ZERO) 53m49s
1st Jack O’Neil (University of Warwick Cycling Club/Team Jewson) 51m38s
Congratulations to Jack for not just winning the Broughton Trophy but also setting a new record by beating Dan’s time by 4 seconds.
The full set of results are on the CTT website.
Tim Butt
Lydia Watts
Jack O’Neil